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After owning my ford fiesta zetec with titanium 16" alloy wheels, I have had two buckled front passenger wheels in the space of 2 months, which they are blaming on poor road conditions. I can understand one buckeed wheel due to road conditions, but not two in the space of 2 months..

Has anyone else had a bad experience with these particular alloys, if so how are ford dealing with it? Are they under warranty?

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I dont drive my car often as always in the city on trains and when i do drive its on a motorway. I havent hit any potholes, hence me saying its not on. I only want to know if others have experienced the same and if ford are giving the same old story.

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I dont drive my car often as always in the city on trains and when i do drive its on a motorway. I havent hit any potholes, hence me saying its not on. I only want to know if others have experienced the same and if ford are giving the same old story.

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Ford released this recently... sounds to me like they're trying to defend themselves.

BRENTWOOD, Essex, Mar 25, 2011 – Despite government confirmation of extra funding to fix Britain’s roads, Ford will continue to ensure the toughness and durability of the suspension systems on all its cars and vans – without sacrificing the rewarding driving experience that defines Ford vehicles.

The recent announcement by Chancellor, George Osborne, means an extra £100 million will be placed in to the UK’s ‘pothole fund’ – raising the Department for Transport’s pothole fixing expenditure to £200 million.

Testing and development processes for chassis and suspension systems carried out by Ford engineers at Dunton Technical Centre – one of Europe’s largest automotive R&D centres – and Lommel Proving Ground, Belgium mean that Ford vehicles are designed to cope with the most demanding road surfaces. Tests include running real-world road simulations, high-tech data acquisition and thousands of miles of surface testing.

Ford’s Lommel Proving Ground in Belgium has been subjecting new Ford vehicles to a variety of highly demanding road surfaces for four decades, and features some 50 miles of test track including many miles designed to put suspension systems to the most severe test. The Lommel Proving Ground features exact copies of real life road surfaces from around the world including Lower Dunton Road – an inch-by-inch recreation of a typically challenging UK road surface that was located near the Ford Dunton Technical Centre, Essex.

Simon Mooney, test engineer, Dunton Technical Centre, said: “The challenge for the suspension system comes when it exits the pothole – it can be like hitting a kerbstone. We test all the wheel and tyre sizes that are fitted to the production cars so we know they can cope.”

Ford use high-tech equipment to record the load and strain placed upon suspension components. This equipment is fitted to so-called “Road Load Data Acquisition” vehicles costing up to £250,000 per corner, and combines with the sophisticated data recording and processing equipment inside the car to make such vehicles worth more than £1.5 million.

Mooney continued: “We use specially instrumented wheels on the car which measure the load in three directions. On some vehicles there are various sensors totalling some 200 extra channels through which to get the data.”

Before vehicles reach the real-word testing stage, Ford engineers can use virtual testing facilities based in Dunton, Essex, to begin ensuring suspension systems will cope with the strains placed on them by road surfaces around the world.

With this initial suspension development taking place even before the first vehicle prototypes are produced, Ford production vehicles are among the best equipped to cope with poor road surfaces, which benefits Ford customers no matter where they drive.

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one mighty pothole in the first month, wouldn't say buckled, I'd call it bent! never had one before, ever, and all 4 cars went down that road, 3 on alloys, this one has, but more careful, know roughly where it was!

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You need to send emails to watchdog if uve had this problem. Ive been told they didnt get enough ppl to report it to them so coudnt start a case. That statement you posted clearly shows there wheels arent strong enough for their use!!! Thanks for the info!!!!

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After owning my ford fiesta zetec with titanium 16" alloy wheels, I have had two buckled front passenger wheels in the space of 2 months, which they are blaming on poor road conditions. I can understand one buckeed wheel due to road conditions, but not two in the space of 2 months..

Has anyone else had a bad experience with these particular alloys, if so how are ford dealing with it? Are they under warranty?

Thankss

Charlotte

3 Buckled alloys reported on my 2nd service on 12 feb 2011. Same conditions as last year nothings changed same old routes every day car done 20000 miles they blamed it on the potholes and road conditions just sat there while he waffled on car is 1.4 titanium with 16" wheels. First car ive ever owned with problem alloy wheels in 26 yrs of driving. Ive emailed watchdog it returns this week or next week on tv.

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What about the other models: Focus, Mondeo, KA etc. have there been complaints from those owners too? I would assume that all of the wheels are made in the same place so maybe you will have a better chance of Watchdog taking notice if the problem is found to be across the whole range of cars.

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No, by the sounds of things its only the fieata 16" and 17" wheels. Its like theres a fault in design and that theinside of the alloy hasnt got enough give.. And thata why theyre breaking. My bfs got 19" alloys and drives on the same roads as me abd has bever had a buckled alloy and there even more low profile than mine. And ford is putting my buckles.down to the low profile???.

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We have titanium with 16" 15 spoke alloys. Noticed vibration through steering, long story short 3 buckled alloys. 500 quid insurance claim. No signs of damage externaly, no major pothole incidents. Just over 20k miles 09 plate. I've been driving 28 years, owned 15 or so cars, many with alloys. Never had a problem before. Previous car was micra with 16" and low profiles. Hit a BIG pothole which tore out the sidewall. No damage to wheel. Clearly ford alloys not fit for purpose. Will be going back to Nissan or whatever next time. No more fords for us, mainly due to the dismissive main dealer. When I asked if there was a problem with ford alloys, rep said 'oh no they're fine, but we do sell a lot of replacements'. Work it out yourself dude. ;)

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What about the other models: Focus, Mondeo, KA etc. have there been complaints from those owners too? I would assume that all of the wheels are made in the same place so maybe you will have a better chance of Watchdog taking notice if the problem is found to be across the whole range of cars.

Not sure about Mondeo or KA, but a fitter did tell me that they change a lot of alloys on the Focus as well, Due to the spread coming up in the survey it could also be problems with a particular batch when Ford have these wheels manufactured or they could be using more than one manufacturer and one of them has a problem with their process, bit difficult to prove when not all seem to fail.....Need to give a failed one to an engineering department at a University as a project for the students to do a study on.Im one of the lucky ones not had a buckled wheel as yet, fingers crossed...

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We have titanium with 16" 15 spoke alloys. Noticed vibration through steering, long story short 3 buckled alloys. 500 quid insurance claim. No signs of damage externaly, no major pothole incidents. Just over 20k miles 09 plate. I've been driving 28 years, owned 15 or so cars, many with alloys. Never had a problem before. Previous car was micra with 16" and low profiles. Hit a BIG pothole which tore out the sidewall. No damage to wheel. Clearly ford alloys not fit for purpose. Will be going back to Nissan or whatever next time. No more fords for us, mainly due to the dismissive main dealer. When I asked if there was a problem with ford alloys, rep said 'oh no they're fine, but we do sell a lot of replacements'. Work it out yourself dude. ;)